


Learning Curve

by Sheeana



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5118437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Illium is nothing like a dig site.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning Curve

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quantumvelvet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumvelvet/gifts).



In her most honest moments, Liara quietly lets herself miss the solitude of a dig site. There was a certain dignity in the layers of ancient dust, in the empty halls where her feet were the first to pass in fifty thousand years.

Illium is not a place she would describe as "dignified", or, rather, anything that might resemble dignity is a thin veneer painted over a much rougher surface, a poorly-constructed replica of an artifact. She can wander through the marketplace, and in the space of thirty seconds she'll see a volus banking partner making a trade that will shake the galactic economy, a salarian operative investigating a multi-system corruption scheme, and a corporate agent shouting at an indentured servant. Every single one of them is pretending to be something they aren't. Dig sites never lie; they hide secrets and they don't always give them up so easily, but they never lie.

In time, she'll learn to get used to it. In time, she might even learn to love it. She doesn't have the centuries most asari expect – she may not even have decades, if the Reapers come sooner rather than later – but she'll do what needs to be done. It's not all different, she thinks, looking out over the skyline through the window of her new office. The thrill of discovery is undeniably the same whether she's uncovering a Prothean data disc or a particularly damaging piece of intel. It might be an addiction. She might not care.

Her comm suddenly comes on, and she glances over her shoulder at the extranet terminal on her desk. She has agents now. Not quite enough to be called a network, but then again, even great empires are born on a single planet.

"T'Soni?" The voice is male, salarian, an ex-C-Sec officer she found on Omega named Prelek. He can get things done, but she trusts him about as far as she trusts anyone on Illium. "T'Soni, if you don't answer this call, our deal is off, and I'm selling this to the highest bidder-"

It takes her a moment to find her composure before she can respond. It takes her a moment longer to remember that if she ever wants anyone to take her seriously, she shouldn't apologize. That, too, will come with time.

"Did you find what I was looking for?" she asks, ostensibly calmly. Her fingers grip the edge of her desk. She's been chasing a Shadow Broker operative across the galaxy for a month. She needs a name.

"Do you know how much I could get for this? The Hegemony would give anything for this information. The _Alliance_ would pay a fortune for this. I could go to someone else."

"Yes, but you won't do that," Liara says, before she can lose her nerve.

"Yes? Why not?"

"We made a deal. You know that I expect the people who work with me to keep their promises." She lets the implication go unsaid. She's afraid that if she ever makes it clear, they'll see her for the fraud she is - an archaeologist pretending to be an information broker, a child playing in a world she barely understands. Two years ago, she couldn't have successfully intimidated a pyjak. She might have learned from the best, but she has a long way to go.

For a moment that lasts far too long, he's silent. She forces herself to breathe evenly.

"… Fine," he says finally. "Fine. You win, T'Soni. He's been using an alias. "Orion". Do you want me to see what else I can find?"

"Yes, and put a trace on the alias," she says absently, drumming her fingers on her desk. "I want to know if he makes a move. Oh, and- thank you, Prelek." She winces when she ends the call. She gets a little better every time, but she remembers a human saying she once heard from Shepard: "too little, too late". One name won't lead her right to the Shadow Broker, won't save Feron, won't find a way to stop the Reapers. All she can do is hope she stumbles onto the right piece of information, the same way she blundered her way into the truth on Therum.

She glances at the blank screen of her terminal one more time before she shuts it off and leaves her office.


End file.
